My dream was always to be an artist. At the age of seven, an art instructor at Scarborough summer Camp in Tarrytown, New York said I was a talented artist, so my mother signed me up for art lessons at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which was a wonderful opportunity. In fact I had a painting hanging at MOMA at the age of seven, which I always say might have been the height of my career, although I had DVD series called Baby Songs of animated songs at the gift shop when I was in my forties!  When I became a teenager I studied painting at the Art Students League until I started college at Brandeis University.

At Brandeis University I was fortunate to study painting with Frank Stella and during those years I did huge abstract expressionist paintings. I also started making animated films at Brandeis that were really art pieces and felt that making animated films would be a good way to support myself as well as being a fine artist . 

To concentrate more on art I spent my final year at Brandeis at the San Francisco Art Institute. After graduating with a BA from Brandeis, I went to UC Berkeley go get my Masters in Education, specializing in Art and I received a lifetime credential to teach art. While I was at UC, Berkeley I was hired to be an Art Professor at the San Francisco Art Institute. 

After graduating I returned to NYC and started making short animated films for Sesame Street. I was hired by Film Fair to make four fairytales about young girls making their way in the world. Over the years, I worked steadily at various Animation studios like Hanna Barbera, Marvel, Warner Bros, Universal, and for 23 years at Disney. During this time I always continued doing my art, painting in oil, and watercolors and exhibiting at Disney and also at the Animation Union as well as LA Valley College where a painting I did became the cover of their catalogue. Here is an article about my animation work: https://www.ourventurablvd.com/meet-animation-director-barbara-dourmashkin-case-who-has-worked-on-shows-from-sesame-street-to-american-dad/. My other uses of my art ability allowed me to illustrate four children's books which I also wrote. "Truman's Los Angeles Adventure" was given a very favorable review by LA Parents Magazine: https://www.laparent.com/trumans-los-angeles-adventureNow  I live in Los Angeles with my husband Geoffrey Case, an architect, and my two daughters and their children.  

Presently I am teaching as a credentialed LAUSD art teaching as well as painting. 

My  goal is to concentrate on various types of painting like portraiture , landscapes, and abstract painting and to use various techniques including using oil paints, watercolors, pastels and exploring everything from more realistic painting to abstract painting and perhaps conceptual art. 

Art has always been the thread in my life that gives me joy and I can't wait to see where concentrating on my art will take me because it is truly what I love.